Retorno a Encélado: Ficção científica Hard (Lua de Gelo, #4)

Eismond #4

by Brandon Q. Morris

O bilionário russo Nikolai Shostakovitch faz uma oferta aos antigos integrantes da tripulação danespaçonave ILSE. Ele financiará uma viagem de retorno à lua gelada Encélado. A oferta é boa demais para ser recusada – a expedição lhes daria a oportunidade única de recuperar o corpo de seu médico, Dimitri Marchenko.

Todos a bordo sabem que seu benfeitor age por motivações puramente pessoais... mas os verdadeiros interesses do magnata e os perigos que ele evoca estão além da imaginação de qualquer um dos astronautas.

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Space

442 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2017

About the author

Brandon Q. Morris is a physicist and space specialist. He has long been concerned with space issues, both professionally and privately and while he wanted to become an astronaut, he had to stay on Earth for a variety of reasons. He is particularly fascinated by the "what if” and through his books he aims to share compelling hard science fiction stories that could actually happen, and someday may happen. Morris is the author of several best-selling science fiction novels.

Reviews

[reherrma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im 4. Roman der Eismond-Trilogie (klingt komisch, ist es aber nicht) erklärt der Autor die Vorgeschiche seiner neuen Trilogie (oder Serie), bzw. einen Teil der Vorgeschichte von Proxima Rising.
Bekanntlich ist dort der virtuelle Dimitri Marchenko an Bord des Mikro-Raumschiffes in Richtung Proxima Centauri. Das Raumschiff wird mittes Laser im Sonnensystem auf ca. 20% der Lichtgeschwindigkeit beschleunigt.
In Enceladus - Die Rückkehr wird die Besatzung der ILSE vom russichen Oligarchen Schostakowitsch gebeten, nochmals in geheimer Mission zum Saturnmond aufzubrechen, um dort einen der Laser zu montieren, die in der Proxima-Mission gebraucht werden, von dieser Mission ist aber hier keine Rede, die Besatzung der ILSE weiß nichts davon. Schmackhaft wird der Besatzung diese Mission gemacht, um den Körper von Marchenko auf dem Mond zu bergen und Schostakowitsch verspricht, das virtuelle Bewustsein Marchenkos von seiner Hardware, einem Quantencomputer, wieder in seinen richtigen Körper zu transferieren...
Das ist grob gesagt, die Gemengenlage der Besatzung, was die Sache aber undurchsichtig macht, ist dass niemand genau hinterfragt, was Schostakowitsch mit den Lasern vorhat und warum seine Tocher, die mit an Bord ist, versucht Genproben des Lebewesens in Enceladus-Ozean zu bergen, um dies zu verwirklichen, ist ihr jedes Mittel recht, dies klang für mich etwas unglaubwürdig.
Genauso wie die Tatsache, dass die Besatzung erpresst wird mit der Herausgabe des virtuellen Marchenkos.
Der Roman versucht, die unglaubliche technologischen Sprünge, die in Proxima Rising beschrieben werden, zu erklären, was m.E. aber nicht gelungen ist. Zu glatt ist auch hier die Handlung beschrieben, es erscheint mir doch etwas zu konstruiert, wenn man sieht, wie die Besatzung überredet wird; dass niemand von dieser Mission etwas mitbekommt und wie die ILSE schließlich erreicht wird; wie die KI des Schiffes überredet wird usw.usf.
Deshalb ist dies von allen Romanen, die ich bisher von Brandon Q. Morris gelesen habe, der schwächste. Aber dennoch bewegt er sich, mit dem Thema Hard Science, in der oberen Hälfte der Qualitätsskala, was das Genre in Deutschland sonst zu bieten hat...

[Gernot1610 · Rating 4 out of 5]

... gute Unterhaltung mit ein paar groben Inhaltlichen Schnitzern. 3.5 Punkte

[Alberto Illán Oviedo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Último tomo del ciclo (no sé por qué pensé que eran cinco). Los mismos protagonistas se ven inmersos en nuevas aventuras, básicamente, situaciones que salen mal y que hay que resolver. Si han gustado los anteriores libros, es más de lo mismo y te gustará; si no lo ha hecho, te preguntarás por qué te has leído este cuarto. Quizá porque es un libro muy corto y el esfuerzo es asumible. Supongo que leeré más, porque me sirven para después de otras lecturas que me han despertado más inquietudes y reflexiones, para desengrasar. No todos los libros deben tener profundidad filosófica enorme para ser interesantes. De vez en cuando nos comemos una hamburguesa del Burger King y no pasa nada, hasta la disfrutamos si la compañía es buena.

[Pere · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sin duda el mas flojo de toda la serie “Luna Helada” de haber sido yo el autor habría dejado las cosas tal y como estaban en el tercero. Cerrando así la saga como mereceria.

Da la sensación de estar escrito a trompicones, y totalmente a brújula (rota)
Tiene tantas incongruencias que no puedo contarlas. Quizás el primer libro fuera Hard Scifi, pero eso con el paso de los tomos se ha ido diluyendo hasta entrar en la Fantasia de este libro.
Una lastima, sin duda.

[Sketchy_tunes · Rating 4 out of 5]

|4,0*|
Ein gelungener Abschluss für die Serie. Wem die erste Bände gefallen haben, der wird auch Spaß beim lesen dieses Buchs haben.

Ich fand überraschend, dass Morris eine spannende Geschichte aus einer Rückkehr zu Enceladus machen konnte, die großen Überraschungen waren hier ja vorweg genommen. Aber die Stärke der Bücher liegt eben nicht in den Wendungen, sondern in den immer neuen Schwierigkeiten, die immer neue Lösungen der Crew erfordern und das ist hier wieder gelungen. Es ist eine Serie für Ingenieure, und solche die sich dafür interessieren.

[Ron Clayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

New twists, new turns, new players. Same mystery and wonder of the universe right in our own neighborhood. Set a few decades in our future, and relies on known science to spring into the marvelous "what ifs" that Science Fiction is known for.

[Kevin Ng · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good closure to the last book

It was nice to see the crew members back in action again, accept for one, which I am not going to say who. You just have to read the book.

[Samyann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review addresses the entire series of The Enceladus Mission, which consists of four full-length novels: The Enceladus Mission, The Titan Probe, The Io Encounter, and Return to Enceladus. Read in sequence as most characters traverse all four books, as does the story.

Plot. A group of astronauts from several countries responds to a probe signal coming from the moon of a distant planet indicating potential life. Through the four novels, space travel is defined in painfully intricate detail. The entire series consists of a series of mundane problems, occasionally life-threatening, that arise with regularity - one after another. Expected relationships between characters develop, including a pregnancy. Shipboard AI's misbehave, save the day, stuff goes wrong, stuff gets fixed, etc.

Liked. The Enceladus Mission series is pure SciFi. The "what-if" possibilities are there, which in my opinion, makes the best SciFi. No drooling zombies, aliens with clicking knees, jump scares. No sex, no gratuitous profanity. Coincidently? Breakthrough Enceladus is a proposed privately funded astrobiology mission to look for macrobiotic life in the volcanic eruptions of water emanating from the moon - true - Google it.

Not so hot. Wording isn't particularly smooth - no contractions; more effort should have been applied to story rather than space technology, which can be boring to some readers. The ending left much unanswered.

Written by Brandon Q. Morris, narrated by Doug Tisdale Jr., each book in the area of eight hours of listening, all books released 2019.

Recommended to the nerds among us; lots of techy stuff to pick apart.

[Strifes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teilweise war das Ganze sehr einseitig und hat sich deswegen etwas gezogen. Das Ende konnte aber wie schon im Ersten Teil für vieles entschädigen.
Wenn ich den letzten Satz richtig verstehe geht es in "Proxima Rising" weiter mit der Geschichte.
Gut, dass ich das E-Book schon habe. :D

[Oscar Lares · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed it like I have the previous books. However the ending was so anticlimactic for me. It just ended so abruptly. I had to re read it a couple of times because I still hadn’t quite processed how it all ended. Final rating is a 3.5 because of the ending.

[KHB · Rating 5 out of 5]

I totally enjoyed this four book Ice Moon series.

The characters were fully developed and each instalment was unique and a real page turner.

From a hard science perspective, I think I learned quite a bit about planets, space travel and all its unique problems.

The last 15% of each instalment of these books are added sections explaining the science behind all the planets and asteroids visited and all sorts of other interesting facts.

For those that prefer space operas and military wars in the asteroid belt, they may not enjoy this series, although there's still lots of fantasy.

Now that I have finished, I'm pleased to find I don't have to wait around for more books from this author, as he seems to be quite prolific. There are four new hard science fiction books released in the last year by Brandon Q. Morris. Fantastic.

[Mathilde · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was the most disappointing of the series. It still reads well, but the end was a real let down. Although we do see how the author is leading us to the next adventure, the characters' stories feel unfished and rushed. After spending so much time developing the story around Marchenko you would think the author would have spent more time wrapping up the emotional aspect of this plot. And what happened to the new self-aware AI?

There is a crucial lack of important information. How did the astronaut survive? How was his consciousness transferred to an AI? Does he have any recollections of his time with the being?

We also missed the amazing details describing a new planet which was present in the first 3 books.
I enjoyed this series, but I think the author should stick to science facts or hard sci-fi. He seems to struggle with sci-fi.

[Rod · Rating 3 out of 5]

My feelings on this volume are similar to the 3rd: I enjoyed the majority of the story but felt the ending was somewhat of a let down. There was a decent story, cooking right along, and then -- Ok, we're at the end now, hope you enjoyed the ride. My feeling is the author is so focused on the next episode for these characters that the ending of one volume suffers in the effort to leave a "hanger" for the next volume.

I do like the author's writing and will likely continue reading his other work. Maybe because I hope the others are more satisfying.

[Clare Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but not as exciting to me as others in this series

This story did not bring as much new science and excitement as others books in this series. In fact, I felt this was more a set up for upcoming books. It introduced new characters; more importantly it introduced new motives for
exploring space and Enceladus. The conclusion of this book is less than satisfying as issues between protagonist and antagonist are not resolved. Neither are the results of the antagonist’s actions devolved. All the more reason I feel this was a set up for future stories.

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally! A physicist writes a sci-fi story


And he assumes his audience is intelligent enough to understand it. Hoorah! Saying any more about the plot other than what the Amazon blurb gives you will mess it up if you haven't read the first three books. I'm hoping there is more to come. Brilliant writing here folks. Wow, good sentence structure, correct syntax, and very very few typos. Thank you, thank you!

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed this series...

Definitely start with the first book Enceladus. I think the author is very familiar with the subject, and has helped me understand more about space, physics and our solar system.

[Red Tide · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointed a second time

I'm reading this series after reading "The Hole" and It's not looking good. The book was supposed to answer questions that I had in The Hole but it hasn't and It's bad. I can't make myself read the ending of the first Eceladus book and this isn't working.

One of the crew left his body on Enceladus but became an AI on their space ship and was transported back to earth secretly? A year later, the crew helps a Russian billionaire to hijack their old space ship with the promise that the AI/crewman will be out back in his body? The crew gets back to Enceladus finds the body? of the crewman but he's alive under the cold ocean in his space suit after 2 years? They hand over the AI/crewman and live happily ever after?

No government retaliation for the hijacking. No explanation for how the crewman is still alive. If that was possible, why did he turn into a data stream entity in the first place?

The first book had characters that weren't and this book has characters that shouldn't. All the interactions are as weirdly illogical as those of the first book. There isn't really a plot and the passage of time is pointless. The AI (not the AI/crewman) is the only character that makes any sense and It's a shame that he's somehow stuck with these humans. What happens to him at the end is never explained.

This book features a person taking off a spacesuit glove to touch an artifact, while under 50 (!!!) Kilometers of cold ocean on a min of Saturn. The AI/crewman has an almost satisfying sexual relationship with his girlfriend. The commander leaves her toddler son for an illegal, consequence-free jaunt to Saturn without supplies, additional fuel, water, food or oxygen on a ship that's been cold for 2-3 years on its way to the sun? Mom is happy that her 40+ system programmer finally has a girlfriend. He suspects that his mother is having financial problems and considers offering to help her but decided that she'll probably be OK? The other characters aren't worth an honest slam, there's just so much badness in the writing of them (they are still better than in the first book, which I couldn't finish - so low bar there).

The first book avoided character development in favor of tech detail and orbital dynamics. It resulted in no story. This time out, he writes characters and the science is Star Wars level fantasy. I think that he didn't realize that he could have screwed up both aspects of the story in the same book and still have created 2 equally bad novels. I was tempted to read the sequel to The Hole but this book has put me off seeing where the series goes.

[Patrick J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It helps to have read the prior novels in the series to have a better knowledge of the characters, but the author does mitigate this somewhat with a few flashbacks and some characters seem to be young people who are changing as they acquire more experience. Still, I didn't find their motives strong enough considering the risks and time they are putting into the mission which is what this story is about.
The world these characters inhabit is dominated by corporations competing off-world. World government is like now, fragmented. I get this.
All the characters seem to be independently wealthy (superhero types) who drop their jobs and take off for a multi-year mission to Enceladus with very short notice and little training. Not very plausible.
PLOT: The mission to Enceladus makes sense. The sling-shot orbital maneuvering is necessary. The rendezvous seems a bit overly risky. I think that a ship with only five crew members is a bit small for such a long mission. The boredom of spaceflight is pretty much ignored, but many authors do this.
Condition of Enceladus is as expected and there are some murky scenes under the ice with a rather vaguely defined alien creature who seems to not be a native to Enceladus, but regardless, the mission is accomplished and they spend an equally long time coming back to earth to end the story.

[Rita Tourino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Em Retorno a Encélado, o quarto volume da série Lua de Gelo de Brandon Q. Morris, somos novamente conduzidos em uma envolvente jornada literária que entrelaça ficção científica, suspense e exploração espacial. A trama se desenvolve em torno da sedutora e tentadora proposta feita pelo bilionário russo Nikolai Shostakovitch aos ex-membros da tripulação da espaçonave ILSE: financiar uma expedição de retorno à lua gelada Encélado em busca do corpo de seu médico, Dimitri Marchenko. Embora aparentemente centrado na busca pelo corpo de Marchenko, o enredo transcende o simples resgate ao revelar os verdadeiros motivos e perigos que motivam o benfeitor, nos transportando para um universo repleto de intrigas, segredos e revelações. Os personagens são retratados com profundidade e complexidade, cada um possuindo suas próprias motivações e dilemas pessoais. Desde o líder da expedição, pragmático e decidido, até o bilionário enigmático que financia a missão, cada indivíduo acrescenta nuances significativas à trama, enriquecendo-a e tornando-a mais envolvente, rica e profunda.
As descrições minuciosas da ambientação nos levam diretamente ao espaço sideral e à superfície gélida de Encélado, transmitindo uma sensação de isolamento e perigo iminente. Isso cria uma atmosfera envolvente de suspense e mistério.

[Nancy Shaffer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boy, did this book suck. I am wary now of any writer who claims to be writing "hard science fiction," especially someone who feels compelled to put that in the title of their novel. It usually means they did their homework in regards to physics, chemistry, and astronomy, and everything else is FAIL. Their story world and characters show they have little grasp of sociology and psychology, their biology knowledge is half-researched, half hand-waved (non-sensical alien species, forex), and in the case of this story series, the artificial intelligence angle is complete FANTASY.

I don't disagree that someday we might have very human-like and intelligent A.I.s, but you can't hand-wave how they got that way. You need to give some plausible background DETAILS based on current trends in A.I. and cybernetics. Most especially if you are writing near-future sci-fi. Ignoring the explanation is what makes it fantasy, and bad fantasy at that, because at least fantasy writers follow clear ground rules in their stories regarding what is allowed and what isn't.

Also? This author needs to jettison the audiobook narrator. He just makes trite material sound even more trite.

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Financed by a Russian billionaire who has his own reasons for sending the crew back to Enceladus, the crew of the ILSE return to Enceladus to retrieve Marchenko's body. The billionaire's daughter daughter takes the place of Hayato who remains behind to care for Sol. The crew hopes to make contact with the entity on Enceladus and somehow reunite Marchenko's consciousness with his body.

As with previous books in this "Ice Moon" series, the author's familiarity with the solar system and all things astronaut is evident in his storytelling. The adventures, good or bad, are based on real science and could very well happen in the near future. This added realism makes the characters well-being even more meaningful to the reader.

While not exactly a sequel, the next book is "The Hole" and after that is "Jupiter". Hopefully, by the time I finish "The Hole", Jupiter will be available for Kindle. It is out in paperback right now.

[Mmonchi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es el cuarto libro de una serie que parecía que solo iba a tener tres y que ya había dado por terminada. Las aventuras vuelven de una forma que parece muy forzada y la acción tarda mucho en empezar. El cuidado de los detalles científicos que tanto destacaba en los anteriores ahora se pasa por alto, quedando en un libro de calidad inferior a los anteriores.

Da la impresión de ser un libro de transición, una forma de explicar cosas que necesita que ocurran en posteriores novelas y que aquí se dejan resueltas, no importa mucho cómo, para no tener que contarlas en el futuro de forma forzada. Eso sí, abre muchas posibilidades, por lo que las siguientes entregas prometen ser muy interesantes.

[Trevizer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sin duda, para mi, el libro que más me ha gustado de esta serie. Aquí se termina (creo, y de momento) la aventura de nuestros personajes. Los personajes tienen adecuadamente su propia personalidad y diversos enigmas nos mantienen con ganas de leer más. No hay ninguna parte aburrida en la que estemos deseando avanzar o empezar a leer en diagonal. Un buen final que ha valido la pena. El escritor respeta al lector dándole motivos para leer y no usando recursos fáciles ni ex machinas, lo cual es de agradecer.

[Jamie Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Return to Enceladus: Hard Science Fiction (Ice Moon Book 4) by Brandon Q. Morris

I liked the characters, but the plot sucked.
Yes, really. And the characters are pretty much flat, and one dimensional as well. It seems that the author would really much rather be lecturing on the geography of distant moons, instead of telling a story. And the chopped up ending he provided in this book didn't do a proper job of ending th book, nor the series. I hope he improves, as he does have potential.

[Juan C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This episode of the saga feels like a forced add-on, written just for the sake of publishing one more book. It doesn't add anything valuable to the story, which ended nicely in book 3 of the series. However, I will check the latest episode, Jupiter, just because I am so familiar with the characters and want to know what happened to them in their visit there. I hope the quality of the first books comes back!

[Thomas James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story & thoughts about life forms.

Mr. Morris says there is more to this story. It sort of seemed like the tragic end to a hopeful future and encounter with another couple of life forms including AI, ALIEN "Slime", and of course human personalities. The problem is that all the relationships end badly. So, we'll see, I guess.

[Iván Braga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es el cuarto libro de la serie que se inició con Misión Encelado.
El autor le da continuidad a la historia con un segundo viaje a Encelado del ILSE y su tripulación.
En mi opinión es el más bajo de los cuatro libros y aunque el autor busca nuevos recursos, la historia no logra mantener el nivel. Con todo si se mira la serie completa de los cuatro libros, sigue siendo una buena saga, con buen balance de conocimiento científico aplica e imaginación.

[Fred Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

In book 4 of this 5 book series the crew is convinced to return to Enceladus to recover the body of a lost crew member. However the whole trip is being financed by a shady billionaire who insists that his daughter accompany the crew.

Along the way there are various incidents that point to the daughter but no definitive evidence.

Great adventure story

Recommended

[Thilo Seliger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die Story ist spannend, trotz der Logik-Löcher. Leider sind die Dialoge (besonders am Anfang) wirklich haarsträubend und trüben den Spaß. Generell der schlechteste Teil der Reihe, da ich mich diesmal einfach nicht auf Encleadus oder einen anderen Mond versetzt gefühlt habe.

[Elyse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still interesting in the "what if" category. But the writing style really falls flat in this one, imo.

Maybe it's from reading these in quick succession, but it's just not energizing me at this point. Thankfully, done with the series (at least as it currently stands).